Did you know that Mayflower Pilgrim John Howland almost didn’t make it to America?
This old newspaper article reports his narrow escape:
…with a roll of ye ship [John Howland was] throwne into the sea, but it pleased God that he caught hould of the topsail halliards, which hunge overboard and ran out of length; yet he held his hould (though he was sundry fathoms under water) till he was held up by the same rope to the brim of the water, and then with a boat hooke and other means got into the ship again and his life saved.
There is a painting by Mike Haywood – “Pilgrim Overboard” – that commemorates this event.
It is a good thing that John Howland was rescued from the sea—not only for his sake—but because he has more living descendants today than any other Mayflower passenger.
Wow – I didn’t know about his near-drowning.
There are so many of our old family stories that simply have not been passed down to us today. Rediscover your family’s stories in GenealogyBank’s more than three centuries of historical newspaper archives.
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